


Liberation Tango

by pharmakon



Series: Steven Universe [4]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s05e11 Lars of the Stars, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Space Opera, Spoilers for Episode: s05e18 A Single Pale Rose, Spoilers for Episode: s05e25 Legs From Here To Homeworld, well sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-08
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-07-03 14:44:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15821016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pharmakon/pseuds/pharmakon
Summary: Lars scanned the spaceport for possible targets, and his eye caught on a dark green ship nestled between two larger Planet Destroyers, colored orange-purple for the Quartz soldiers they carried. It was half in the shadow of the two ships; Lars crept around to another pillar to get a closer look and froze, cursing to himself. He'd thought that the shuttle was abandoned, but there was a tall green gem arguing with a smaller white one at its other side. The smaller gem-- a Pearl?-- had her rattly voice raised.Her face was set in a rictus grin, and her arms were wrenched up at her sides, palms facing the sky. Lars shuddered. Ugh, creepy. He inched closer to hear what she was saying.(Or: Lars and the Off-Colors accidentally add White Diamond's Pearl to their crew,  before escaping Homeworld.)





	1. The Great Escape

**Author's Note:**

> I just want space opera and more Lars. Is that so much to ask?
> 
> Also, the only reason this fic is called what it is... is because "tango" sounds like "bingo bongo," and it's a silly name. That's it. No deeper meaning required.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lars and the Off-Colors steal a shuttle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure where this is going, but the idea wouldn't leave my head. Another canon divergent AU, this time taking Legs From Here To Homeworld into account.

Docking Area Eta-3 was swarmed over with gems of all shapes and colors: some taller than even Garnet, and some as small as toddlers. Lars froze up, heart stuttering in his chest. He was hiding behind a decorated pillar, back against a wall, but he still felt ridiculously exposed. He'd known for a long time that the Crystal Gems were aliens, and he'd been staying with the Off-Colors for at least a week, but the sight of a space port filled with alien ships and covered in alien rock people like a hive covered in fire ants-- well, that was still a shock.

A gem Robonoid floated by and checked random gems; every one of them stayed calm and still as she was scanned. Lars knew from experience that an unauthorized gem would be shattered at once. Steven's (and Lars's) escape from the Diamonds' courtroom had set every gem in Homeworld on high alert, and security protocols had been updated to deal with the change. That made escaping by stealing a ship  _that_ much harder. 

Another Robonoid floated past Lars's hiding place and scanned him, blinking when it didn't detect anything and moving on. Lars smirked to himself. Lucky for the Off-Colors, they had a human on their side. Without a gem, he didn't appear on Homeworld security scanners at all.

Lars scanned the spaceport for possible targets, and his eye caught on a dark green ship nestled between two larger Planet Destroyers, colored orange-purple for the Quartz soldiers they carried. It was half in the shadow of the two ships; Lars crept around to another pillar to get a closer look and froze, cursing to himself. He'd thought that the shuttle was abandoned, but there was a tall green gem arguing with a smaller white one at its other side. The smaller gem-- a Pearl?-- had her rattly voice raised. 

Her face was set in a rictus grin, and her arms were wrenched up at her sides, palms facing the sky. Lars shuddered.  _Ugh, creepy._ He inched closer to hear what she was saying.

"-- is not pleased with your results," the Pearl was buzzing. The tall green gem frowned indignantly.

"I'm sorry to hear that," she said. Her tone sounded like it was controlled only through great effort. Lars could sympathize. "But Yellow Diamond herself authorized the fleet's retreat-- the asteroid field would have caused the losses of half my ships."

"More ships could have been produced with the resources from the system," the Pearl cut in. Her eyes were wide open and blank like a mannequin's. "More gems could have been produced, in a great surplus to those lost. However, due to your incompetence, the opportunity posed by the wormhole has now been lost. Another failure like this will not be taken lightly."

"But Yellow Diamond  _authorized_ \--" 

"That is irrelevant." The green gem fell into a shocked silence. "She will agree with White Diamond's view." White Diamond? Lars didn't remember her from the trial. "You will now make your report as according to protocol. Do so at once, Emerald."

Emerald gritted her teeth and glared. "Yes, my Diamond. Of course. I'll do so immediately." She stalked away from the ship, fists clenched. The Pearl just stayed and watched.

Lars crept to the other side of the pillar, out of the robotic Pearl's sight, and whispered to himself, "Diamond? A Diamond?  _Crap._ " Ugh, this wasn't good...  This was the worst guarded ship in the whole port, but if a Diamond had her eyes on it, it might be a no-go. What if they were caught? The Off-Colors would be shattered, but him? Would he be sent to the human zoo? Or would one of the Diamonds just take a hand and crush him, spill out all his organs across the floor-- would that be it for him? Would Steven's pink resurrection keep him alive and knit him back together like Wolverine? He  _didn't know!_ And what was with that Pearl? Was that what happened to gems White Diamond didn't like? No trial, no lawyers, just-- emptiness, like a broken doll? Lars hugged himself, overcome with terror. Suddenly, moving felt like a sure way to get himself captured and killed.

He looked down at his arms, bright pink like he'd never seen on a living thing, and Steven's words flashed through his head:  _It's okay to be afraid._

And God, was he afraid. He wasn't a gem like Steven technically was-- he hadn't trained for battle, he didn't have magic powers, he didn't even have the assurance that he would find his way home. Steven was-- important, he had aliens who would look for him to rescue him, he was a weird little kid who  _everyone_ loved. Lars didn't have that kind of support. If he couldn't get back to Earth-- if Earth was attacked, if the Crystal Gems got held up there-- he wouldn't have anyone to fall back on. And for the Off-Colors, he _was_ the fallback.

What would Sadie think of him now? He hadn't had the guts to help her back on the spaceship, when they'd all been kidnapped-- was he going to let her down again by failing to get home? No. No, he couldn't. He wouldn't. He was _better,_ now. He was basically a zombie now! Lars gathered himself and stood up straight, squaring his shoulders and trying to think like Buck Dewey.  _Lars is a pink zombie? Whoa, he's the coolest person here._

Okay, no, that felt silly. No one but Buck could pull off referring to himself in third person. It was dumb to even try. He shook himself off and snuck back down to the abandoned Kindergartens under Homeworld's gilded surface.

Rhodonite ran up to him as soon as he entered the cavern. "Lars! Are you okay? Did anyone see you?" The other Off-Colors, a tiny group of condemned outcasts, crowded behind her.

"No one saw me," Lars told her, panting with how fast he'd had to run to avoid being seen. "And I'm pretty sure I wasn't followed." 

"Good news, everyone!" Padparadscha announced. "Lars will arrive safely, with news of a shuttle we can use to escape!" Thanks, Padparadscha.

"A shuttle?" the left Rutile twin asked. Her eyes lit up with curiosity.

Her twin added excitedly, "Something we could fly?"

Lars filled them in on what he'd seen; when he got to the part about the Pearl's threats, and to her mention of White Diamond, Rhodonite gasped.

"Oh, that poor Pearl," she warbled. "I'd heard that the Diamonds didn't treat their Pearls well, but that's terrible!" She wrapped one set of arms around herself and shivered.

Fluorite said sadly, "How terrible for them."

Lars shook his head. "I don't know about that... I saw Blue and Yellow Diamond's Pearls at Steven's trial, and they at least seemed like people. They weren't-- they looked like people, not robots. And they didn't act like someone was talking through them. It honestly looked like that Pearl was reconditioned or brainwashed or something."

The right Rutile twin frowned. "What's 'brainwashed'?"

Her sister chimed in, "We've never heard that word before."

"It's..." Lars tried to think of how to explain. "It's like, someone bad goes inside your head and makes you think and act a certain way, even though that's not who you are. But they mess up your mind so bad that you can't remember what you were like before they messed with you."

"Oh." Rhodonite teared up. "So they don't harvest or shatter you, they just make you into someone else? That's... I think that's worse, actually. Isn't that worse?"

"We're all about to be very sad," Padparadscha said somberly. "What a terrible thing you'll tell us about!"

"Yeah, it's pretty dystopian," Lars agreed. He hesitated, then said, "You sure you don't want to escape through my head? I'm really trying to perform a beautiful sacrifice here."

Fluorite shook her massive head. "No. Off-Colors support each other," she said. "You've found a shuttle that all of us could fit into, yes? We have no need for more desperate measures."

Lars smiled awkwardly. "Well... don't forget that the offer's open. You think we should go try to steal that shuttle?"

Rutile bit her lip. "If a Diamond is watching it, we could attract her attention."

Her twin said, "Diamonds are cruel, aren't they? Attracting their attention would be bad."

"It's true that the current Diamond Authority is cruel," Fluorite said. "I remember, though, long ago, that one of them was more lenient than the others. One of my components once guarded Pink Diamond's palanquin."

"Pink Diamond?" Rhodonite asked. "I-- wait. She was real after all?"

"She's the one Rose Quartz killed," Lars remembered aloud. "The one Steven was on trial for killing. Didn't she die on Earth?"

"Yes," Fluorite murmured. "So it was said. One of my components heard of her shattering, just after it happened. She remembers the terror of every gem who realized that a Diamond could be killed."

"Killed," Rhodonite said softly. "Yes, that would explain why no one talks about her any more, doesn't it." Lars gave her a curious look, and she elaborated, "If it's widely known that Diamonds can be shattered, then gems might try to kill the others."

"Attracting a Diamond's attention could lead to trouble," Padparadscha warned. 

"Pink Diamond was the youngest of them, the rumors said. The weakest. The others, if they were attacked, would not be defeated so easily. And if they were, it would send all of the Empire into chaos." Fluorite curled into a giant ball and lowered her head to speak more closely. "It would lead to destruction."

"Maybe we shouldn't be thinking about this now," Lars said. "I mean, we're a tiny group, right? We're not about to start a revolution, we just have to get away."

"Lars is right."

The right Rutile added, "I agree with Lars. We should focus on our current problems. If we can't steal this shuttle to get off planet, we won't be getting anywhere."

"But how are we supposed to get it?" Rhodonite said anxiously. "The shuttle is in the middle of the docking bay! And the rest of us still show up on scanners... I don't know if this is a good plan. I think we'll all be shattered!"

"Have no fear! Lars will have an idea." Padparadscha turned to Lars eagerly, and he blinked.

"Uh, yeah, I guess I came up with something." He looked over the Off-Colors nervously, then said, "How about... I'm the only one who can sneak on board, right?" The Rutiles nodded. "I was thinking... if I could hijack the ship, and one of you could tell me the basics of how to fly it, and then you guys could get up somewhere high... maybe I could pick you up? That way you wouldn't have to sneak into anything, and we could all escape Homeworld."

"But what high place could we reach?" the left Rutile asked. "If we go above ground, we make ourselves vulnerable to Shattering Robonoids."

"Not to mention the possibility of being found by other gems," the other Rutile continued. "We would be shattered on sight by nearly anyone."

"Huh. That  _is_ a problem." Lars didn't know how to deal with any of this. "Uh, anyone else have any ideas? Fluorite, you're kind of in charge, right?"

Fluorite was silent. Then: "Perhaps... there is an area of the old Kindergarten, where some outdated communicators have been left behind. If we used one of those, we could stay hidden, until Lars arrived with the ship. That would... minimize... our chances of discovery."

"We'd certainly be discovered after we stole the ship," Rhodonite grumbled.

"But then we'd have a chance of escape, wouldn't we?" Lars asked. "And that shuttle seemed kinda fast."

A murmur of agreement and it was settled. Lars pulled on his hero facade and hid his shaking hands.

*

Gems didn't sleep, but there were ebbs and flows in the crowds around the spaceport, so Lars snuck back in when there was less traffic. The shuttle was guarded by a pair of stationed Robonoids, which floated menacingly at its entrance. Lars walked right up to them, trying his best to project confidence like one of the Cool Kids, and waited patiently as they scanned him and lost interest. The door to the shuttle was already open, but he couldn't see anyone inside. _That_ was weird. Maybe the doors were always left open, in case someone had to do repairs or something? Lars backed away and hid for a while, but no one came out. Abandoned, then. He hoped.

Lars crept into the shuttle carefully and winced when he saw the controls. He didn't recognize half the buttons and screens, and the script was unfamiliar scribbling. The Rutile Twins' piloting instructions, apparently, were already leaving his head.  _Come on, focus. Everyone's counting on you._ He made himself look around like he knew what he was doing.

There was enough room in the shuttle to fit Fluorite, if she managed to squeeze onto the basement level, and the rest of the Off-Colors could be squished in easily enough. There was a small throne in the center of the control room-- probably the Emerald's-- and the whole place was saturated in dark, rich green. A row of unfamiliar weapons lined one wall. " _Someone's_  got a big head," Lars muttered. He looked around furtively for gems one more time, even peeking down into the lower level of the shuttle, then scurried back into the bridge and tapped a few screens. Anyone in the engine room would have heard him by now, right? The center screen lit up emerald green; Lars took a guess and pressed a button, and the door to the outside closed. 

Another button-- the shuttle jerked and sputtered like a car with broken ignition. Another-- and what even was an nonagon, was that the shape the Rutiles had mentioned?-- and the shuttle lifted off the ground and jerked sharply to one side. Shouts rang out from the docking bay.

Lars did his best to ignore them before he lost his nerve. "Come on, come on..." He waved a hand across the screen and pressed a few more buttons, and the shuttle shot up into the sky with a roar. "Whoa!" The bridge shuddered back and forth. "Not good not good not good...!"

Lars opened the communicator and shouted, "I'm coming in, head to the top of the tower!" The shuttle rumbled and clipped the top of a citadel with a deafening screech of metal, and Lars slid to the other side of the room as the whole ship tilted. He scrambled back to the controls just in time to pull up from crashing into a giant white head statue and screamed, "Crap!" One of the screens disappeared, and an alarm started to flash. 

_WARNING: IMMINENT COLLISION_

"I get it!" Lars slammed another button, and a transparent shield bubbled out from the shuttle and took the balcony off a building. It sparked alarmingly, then cut out. Well, okay. At least he hadn't actually crashed.

"Lars?" Rhodonite's fearful voice came over the communicator. "We're almost at the place. Are you coming?"

Right-- the meeting place was coming up, wasn't it? "Yeah, I'm-- I'm coming," Lars nearly shrieked. "Nope, nope, no problems here!" Was that another ship rising up from the docking bay and following him? Were there space police? He didn't know! "I'll be there in a second!"

He pulled the ship up higher, over the buildings, and searched desperately for the meeting place. There, at the edge of a pinkish building, that little balcony-- he thought he saw Fluorite. If he didn't get there fast, he wouldn't be the only pilot to see them, and if they were supposed to be shattered on sight-- he had to move fast.

A noise came from behind him. Lars froze, barely keeping the ship steady, then spun around. Coming up from the engine room was that creepy, robotic, utterly  _terrifying_ Pearl. Crap, _why_ he hadn't checked the engine room?

"A hijacker? White Diamond thought this might occur," her tinny voice said, not sounding like a person's voice at all. "Perhaps you were sent by Emerald. Or by one of her political opponents, to discredit her."

"Yep!" Lars squeaked. "Yep, that's it exactly, I'm being employed by a-- an opponent, yeah. Gotta love that  _space money._ "

An unblinking, unsettling stare. Lars grasped at the controls and tried to turn on autopilot. What a surprise! Turned out piloting a ship where all the instructions were written in a _foreign language_ was hard to do! "You will not be leaving Homeworld."

"Why not?" Lars blurted out. "We're not even doing anything wrong! You can't stop us!" Go away go away please go away-- maybe he could open the doors and throw her out?

"You will _not leave Homeworld_." Lars backed up just as the Pearl lunged at him; her arm clipped through the communicator like a glitch in a video game. 

"What-- gems don't do that!" Lars protested. The Pearl caught his upper arm in a bone-crushing grip, and he choked back a scream. He felt his arm  _bend_ and forced back tears. If he messed this up he'd _never_ get off-planet, the ship would crash before he did--

"Let go of me!" He tried to wrench out of her grip and resume the controls, but the Pearl held on like he didn't weigh anything. Her cracked eyes stared through him.

"You will not disrespect Homeworld law." The shuttle tilted to the side, and Lars twisted out of her grip. "You will not disrespect the _order_ \--"

"Fuck your order!" Lars screamed. "I'm not under your command! I'm from Earth--" His fists balled up. "I'm human--" The ship shuddered again, and he stumbled back against the wall-- something poked into his back-- "And I'm not living the rest of my life on this stupid planet!" He grabbed at the two-pronged weapon behind him and lunged.

The Pearl turned her ruined head--

The shuttle wobbled and scraped against the side of a building, and Lars lost his footing and fell in her direction--

And the weapon, instead of dispelling her form, hit her gem head-on and sent a long, deep crack through the middle. 

The Pearl jerked her head and stared at Lars, eyes wide with what almost looked like awareness. She said, in a painfully small voice, "That  _hurts. That really hurts!"_  Her voice rose into a wail, and Lars froze up like he'd been shot. That... that didn't sound like the voice she'd had before. That was-- had he  _killed_ her, would this kill her?

Her body disappeared, but the damaged gem stayed whole, thank god. It clattered to the floor as Lars rushed to steady the ship.

He reached the meeting point with a gasp of relief. "Get in as fast as you can!" he told the Off-Colors as he opened the door. "I think I'm being followed."

The gems filed in; when Rhodonite saw the gem on the floor, she gasped and scooped it up in her hands. "Oh! Is this-- oh, no, this is a serious problem."

"It was an accident," Lars said, almost panicking. "She-- she attacked me-- is there anywhere we could leave her?"

"She'll be shattered, if she's that damaged," one of the Rutiles said, craning her neck to get a better look at the Pearl's gem.

"There's no fixing that," added her sister. "Here, let us take the controls." Lars gave them up gladly; he stepped to the side, staring awkwardly at the gem in Rhodonite's hands, as they took off. Could they leave a gem to her death, if she served Homeworld? Did her service to White Diamond automatically make her an enemy?

But the way she'd looked, when Lars hit her gem... It reminded him of the Winter Soldier comics he used to read when he was younger, when the Soldier came in from the cold. And Pearls were already treated like slaves, weren't they? His instincts were screaming at him that something was seriously wrong.

A coward, Lars thought, would leave her to die. That was the easiest option.

What would a hero-- no. What would _Steven_ do? 

"We're about to be presented with a moral quandary," Padparadscha said, clasping her hands. "How concerning!"

Rhodonite took a long look at the Pearl's gem, then cradled it with all four arms and glanced up defiantly. "I'm not leaving her," she said. "If-- if the Pearl part of me was hurt like this, I'd want someone to help her. The same should go for this gem."

Fluorite cautioned, "She could still be loyal to Homeworld."

"Because she's  _brainwashed,"_ Rhodonite insisted, sending Lars a beseeching look. "Right? She's been hurt, in her mind, and she's just as Off-Color as us now, look at her! And-- Off-Colors stick together, don't they?"

Lars sent the gem in Rhodonite's hands a sickened look. "I-- we can't just leave her, can we."  _That hurts,_ she'd said, like she was surprised at the feeling. Like she hadn't really noticed the pain, before. Lars didn't think that was a good sign. "And I guess we can always poof her again if she tries to attack us."

And maybe Steven, during his next visit, would know what to do with a brainwashed gem. That was his job, anyway. Lars didn't have to deal with all that stuff.

Steven's job. Yeah. Until then, Lars just had to hold down the fort. 

He really wished he'd just gone to that stupid potluck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, comments are highly appreciated. I don't usually have the time to reply to them, but rest assured that each and every one makes my day.


	2. Shards of Honor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Pearl reforms.

 "-- on the dark side of the moon, not  _invisible._ Some gem's going to think to send a probe over here and then where will we be?"

"The shields can handle cloaking for a few more hours. The real question is how we're gonna get to Earth in this little shuttle. 'Cause I don't think it looks too sturdy--"

"The shuttle will let us get far enough to steal  _another_ vessel _\--"_

The Pearl's mind came back online slowly and jerkily, hints of outside conversation coming and going like a channel with bad reception. She was in her gem, she realized, trying mindlessly to reform. Every time she pushed to make herself real, make herself physical, her form would sputter out into nothing and she would be back where she'd started. At the back of her mind pulsed a slow, dull agony.  

That was all right, some part of her understood. That was nothing new. 

She gave up on trying to reform for a moment, and the sensations of the outside faded into nothing. Instead, she prodded around her mind like a mammal might prod for a missing tooth. Something  _was_ missing, she knew. Something that should have been automatic, that should have accompanied every other order she was given. But that previous programming-- previous  _order--_ was now conspicuous only by its absence. Her mind didn't feel used to functioning without some extra parameter.

Perhaps if she reformed her parameters would be reestablished. The Pearl pushed upwards, feeling like she was climbing a steep wall, and sensation returned to her body as it formed itself-- the chief sensation being  _pain._ She tapered her arms into hands and then fingers, strained to put herself in appealing clothing, fought to regain eyes and ears and lips. Every part that should have been easy now felt like a nearly insurmountable challenge. Her mistress would want her to reform despite the costs, though. The Pearl couldn't recall how she'd been dissipated, but she certainly recalled _her_.

White Diamond was a very hard gem to forget. _Other_ gems, however--

_Error; memory invalid_

The Pearl flinched at the shock of pain that ran through her gem, and her half-formed senses whited out. She thought she might have gasped, but no sound reached her ears.

Her senses returned eventually: blurry eyesight, rapidly clearing so her eye could make out the insides of a dark green shuttle; touch, telling her that she was pressing her palms to a cool floor; hearing, so she could hear the gems around her. The last was the most startling.

"Oh, good, she's reformed," the same quavery voice as before said in relief. "Hello? Can you hear us?"

"Give her time," a slower voice chided. "She's only just resumed her form."

The Pearl looked down at her hand and flexed her fingers; they jumped and broke up into static before re-solidifying. She hadn't resumed her form very well, she didn't think. Hopefully she wouldn't be punished for that transgression.

A bright pink organic was watching her with an expression that looked somewhere between posturing and guilt. Its ears were stretched down in what looked like an unnatural manner, and its eyes almost seemed to give off light of their own. The Pearl looked past it to the gems it spoke to and had to keep herself from stiffening in surprise. The only reputable gem among them seemed to be the Padparadscha Sapphire; the others, two fusions and a deformed gem, were like nothing the Pearl had ever seen in White Diamond's service. 

She looked to the Padparadscha and waited for permission to speak.

"Crap, do you think I broke her? Can she not talk any more?" the organic asked. It moved forward, gazing at her with a strange expression. 

The pink fusion stared at her, bit her lip, and said, "I think she's waiting for permission before she does anything."

"You mean like a robot?" the pink organic asked incredulously. "I thought she was a _gem_! Are you all like that?"

"I predict... that you will be waiting for permission to speak, and that it will be given," the Padparadscha cut in. It was nearly impossible to tell her expression beneath the fringe of her hair, but the Pearl thought her voice sounded faintly concerned. She decided to interpret the cryptic statement as permission.

"Have I been stolen, Your Clarity?" she asked, thinking to get the most important information out of the way first. If she'd been gifted to these strange gems-- and her gem ached so badly she couldn't begin to remember-- it would be good to know before she attempted to escape them and return to her mistress. If she hadn't been, then she would have to show initiative in order to return to Homeworld.

There was a void in her chest that only her Diamond's orders could fill. The Pearl knew this to be fact; any other thought had not been allowed for as long as she could remember. Deviation was prohibited.

( _Those_ mental parameters were absent, too, and the Pearl's mind floundered in the empty space where once there were walls. She did as she had practiced for thousands of years and didn't think of it.)

"You haven't been stolen," one part of the Rutile abomination told her. Hadn't the Pearl said 'Your Clarity'? Perhaps two bodies meant each had only half the brains.

Her other half added, "You're more of an unintended stowaway. We thought if we left you you'd be shattered, you're so damaged."

The Pearl took in their words as calmly as she could manage. Then, keeping her gaze straight ahead, she brought a hand to her belly and felt the deep, crumbling crack that ran through her gem like a canyon through the ground. No tears sprung to her eyes. Instead, a pervasive numbness seemed to spread all over her, making her mind and body cold and distant, until she was very nearly watching herself from above. "How unfortunate," she said neutrally. "I'll need to be replaced immediately. My Diamond won't have any use for a broken Pearl."

Not quite true. Her Diamond might put her back together again, if she were returned in her current state-- make her into another patchwork, another talking toy. The Pearl hoped that, since she would be dead soon, she might be forgiven for this omission. White Diamond would have no use for a broken Pearl; she would fix her, first, before having her discharge her duties. But perhaps, instead, the Pearl might die here and never fall back under White Diamond's control. It was the only alternative she could imagine to continuing in her Diamond's service.

The Pearl wondered if White Diamond's lent abilities, the only part of her modifications that she could claim to have use for, would persist if she remained damaged and far from Homeworld. She wondered, also, if it mattered.

"What? No, that's stupid," the organic snapped. "You're not gonna be replaced-- who would we even replace you with? We're outlaws! We stole a shuttle!"

"Um, Lars--"

'Lars' threw up its hands and started to pace. "This is stupid. This whole thing is stupid! I'm not gonna have spent all this time watching your gem for you to decide that now is the best time to die! Who even does that?" It turned and pointed sharply at the Pearl. "If you aren't any use to White Diamond any more, then you might as well stick with us. It's like Fluorite says-- Off-Colors stick together." Its face twisted. "Even if some of them are really messed up."

"If I cannot live to serve my Diamond, I cannot live," the Pearl informed it. A hint of annoyance tickled the back of her mind. "Joining a group of fugitives would be an unacceptable third option. And I am not 'Off-Color'."

The fusion piped up, "Actually, you are. Pearls aren't supposed to come in that washed-out shade. I would know!"

"I was modified in my mistress's image," the Pearl said. "I am not  _defective._ "

"You're missing an eye," the organic pointed out. No, _really_? The Pearl hadn't  _noticed._ Another frisson of irritation flashed through her. 

"I can't join you because I can't disobey my Diamond. I can't cease to serve her." Why couldn't they understand that? Perhaps they were more defective than she had realized.

"But you said it yourself," one of the Rutiles urged. "You're dying already. You can't serve her."

"If you go with us," her counterpart said, "it's just choosing death, except you'll take longer to die."

The Pearl kept still and resolved to ignore them. 

*

Time passed in choppy sections; over the next few days, the Pearl was not made to perform any tasks, was not harvested or sold to the highest bidder. Instead, she was urged to keep still, to rest-- was spoken to as if she had any right to respond. Most of the time she kept silent as she was meant to. Other times, she gave in to her traitorous impulses and spoke. 

All the while, her Gem fell to pieces within her. It seemed that choosing not to escape had been choosing death after all. 

The organic paced and snarled at a screen, casting occasional looks back to where the Pearl still kneeled. "Look, I don't even know if he got the message," it was saying to the fusion. "This would be  _so much easier_ if you'd-- just-- argh!" It tore at its hair. "Why won't you just go through my head yourself?"

"Well," the fusion said, "Fluorite won't fit, we need the Rutiles to pilot, Padparadscha doesn't do well on her own, and if I got to Earth, I wouldn't want to come back." Her smile was tremulous. "You know it's true, Lars."

"And we can't just send  _her_ through-- who knows where her loyalties lie?"

"My loyalties lie with my Diamond," the Pearl cut in, tired of being ignored. Another unfamiliar feeling; she felt as though a levee was overflowing within her, sending chaotic emotion through her every part. It had been such a long time since she'd wanted to be angry, or to _cry_ \-- "Always. Always with my Diamond."

_DIAMOND ABSENT AWAITING ORDERS_

Something about the lack of mental parameters made the statement feel different than usual. This time, when the pain came shooting up her chest, she hid her flinch.

"See? See?" the organic gestured wildly. " _What_ \-- ugh, I can't think of this now. How close are we to Upsilon 9?"

"Only five quads away," the fusion reported. "We've arrived in the middle of a cosmic jubilee! I don't know how we're going to get past all this traffic without being seen."

"Who says we have to?" The organic strode up to the screens and put its hand on its chin. "This many ships, Emerald won't be able to hit us at all. We could blend in with the crowd."

"And what if Emerald warns the other ships against us?" one of the Rutiles asked.

"If they're warned, they could help apprehend us, couldn't they?"

"Not if she's too embarrassed she was outsmarted by a bunch of Off-Colors," the organic 'Lars' bragged. The Pearl watched it carefully. "In _fact_ \--" It doubled over, head glowing, and two shapes tumbled out of its hair and landed on the ground. "What! Steven!"

One of the shapes, a pale skinned organic with dark hair, stood and offered a hand to its companion, who took it gratefully. "Lars! I got your message-- whoa, is this a spaceship?"

"It's a shuttle," the fusion informed it. The two organics 'oohed' and 'aahed' respectfully. "We stole it!"

"I predict that we will soon have two visitors!"

"Oh, yeah-- Lars, you've met Connie, right?" The second organic waved and greeted the other fugitives. Lars said something quiet in return, grimacing, and looked over at the Pearl. The smaller two organics followed his gaze, and--

Something  _pinged._ The Pearl didn't know how else to describe it. By all reports, she was lost in space somewhere near Upsilon 9 in Sector 2, stolen by a group of fugitives and damaged beyond repair-- but for one bright, bewildered moment she was so happy she could barely think. She staggered to her feet, eyes locked on the one called 'Steven,' and opened her mouth. "You--" She couldn't speak, couldn't even figure out what to say-- "You're-- not an organic, you're--"

"I'm Steven Universe," the organic said with a smile. "I'm half gem. I'm here to help you, okay?" And he lifted his shirt to show a deep pink gem--

The Pearl didn't know if she made a sound or not. She must have, staring at that gem (so familiar, so _familiar,_ and that aching emptiness where White Diamond's presence had been was filling up, was sealing over, and fresh purpose was running through her veins), but Steven didn't move toward her until she fell to her knees. Her face felt wet. 

"-- she hurt? Steven, hurry, she doesn't look good--"

"It's okay, you're okay," Steven was saying, "You're a Pearl, right? I promise this won't hurt you. I'm just gonna try to heal your gem." He touched her arm and looked into her eyes, obviously trying to comfort her. The Pearl couldn't bring herself to speak.

 _You're here,_ she wanted to say, not knowing why but knowing that she meant it.  _You're here, you came back, you didn't forget about me--_

_My Diamond._


	3. Crash Standing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lars makes a new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn the canon, full speed ahead!

 White Diamond's Pearl was staring at Steven like she'd never seen anything like him. Lars looked awkwardly between them, hiding a habitual sneer, and wondered if he should intercede. 

"Can I heal you?" Steven repeated with a worried smile. "I promise it doesn't hurt."

"It  _really_ doesn't," Steven's girlfriend-- no, best friend, and her name was Connie-- said. "Steven healed my eyes so I didn't have to wear glasses, and I didn't feel anything at all!"

The Pearl blinked, looking from Steven to Connie almost blankly, like something inside her had just shorted out or rebooted. "You... may do as you wish," she said. Her voice, free of the staticky effect that Lars had heard when she'd attacked him, was pleasantly clear. 

Steven frowned. "I don't want to do anything without your permission." 

"Uh, Lars?"

" _Steven,_ just heal her already, what are you waiting for?" Lars snapped. He could  _see_ her gem, could see how she was falling apart-- why couldn't Steven see the same? There wasn't any time for his lovey-dovey stuff when an actual life was on the line. 

Steven looked at the Pearl, nodded, and licked his hand ( _ugh_ that looked weird). Then he reached forward and placed his palm over her gem, fingers spreading across her belly, and the Pearl lit up like a lightbulb. Lars jerked back, but Steven, startled as he was, kept his hand on the Pearl's gem.

"Is that supposed to happen?" he hissed at Connie. The kid furrowed her eyebrows.

"Not usually," she told him. "But it's possible that White Diamond's Pearl has a lot more to fix. I wouldn't know, though. We don't know  _anything_ about White Diamond. She wasn't at Steven's trial, right?"

Lars shook his head, still watching the Pearl with Steven. "Not that I remember."

Steven stepped back. The glow, so bright that it had hurt Lars's eyes to look at it, had started to fade. 

When it fell dark, the Pearl was standing in the center of a guttering halo, and her gem was whole. She opened her eyes-- _both of them_ \-- and blinked, blinked again, staring down at her hands. When she reached up to touch her face, Lars already knew what she would be feeling. The cracks that had spread across her face had disappeared, leaving it smooth and pale as fine china. Her body was still paper-white, but her eyes were clear and bright. 

Not just bright, Lars realized a second later in panic, but  _teary._ The Pearl had tears flowing down her face. 

"Is that better?" Steven asked. His expression went from worried to almost panicky. "Wait, no, don't start crying or _I'll_  start crying--" His voice went thick. 

The Pearl choked back her tears all of a sudden, wiping them away as soon as they appeared. "Oh-- oh, my apologies, I don't mean to upset you-- are you alright, my-- that is to say, are you--"

"Good news, everyone!" Padparadscha interrupted. "Steven is capable of healing the damage to gems caused by White Diamond!"

" _Lars,_ this is important--"

"I'm fine," Steven hurriedly promised. "I'm just emotional, it's okay." He stopped, paused, frowned. "Wait, _White Diamond_ was the one who hurt you? But I thought you're her Pearl!"

Rhodonite tilted her head. "What's your point?" The Pearl glanced from her to Steven with a look of confusion.

"I think he means that he thought Diamonds  _liked_ their Pearls," Connie said. "He said-- Yellow and Blue Diamonds' Pearls seemed fine. They just hung out with their Diamonds a lot."

"They're healthy because their Diamonds wish them to be that way," the Pearl said. "White Diamond prefers me as I was before I was damaged." She looked at Steven again (what, was there a string attracting her eyes to him?) and asked again, a clear note of hope in her voice, "Am I... being stolen, then? Now that I'm fixed?"

Steven balked. "What? No!" The Pearl flinched, and he babbled, "You can't steal a _person_! You can do what you want. If you want to return to White Diamond, you can. But if you're scared of her and she hurt you, then you should stay here with Lars."

White Pearl's face went neutral, and she gazed down at her feet. "I'll stay here with Lars," she said after a moment, raising her eyes. "In accordance with your parameters." 

"It's your choice," Steven insisted. "But if that's what you want to do, I'm sure they'll be glad to have you."

The ship bucked and shuddered underneath them, and Lars tore his focus away from the drama happening between White Pearl and Steven and towards the bridge. "Rutiles! What's going on?"

"One of our engines just got taken out! We've been trying to tell you--" 

"--we're being followed." Her twin pulled up a bunch of screens. "I've been scanning the area, but there's so much debris around this planet that it's hard to make out a ship. This shuttle wasn't really made for battle."

Lars winced. Ugh, he'd forgotten about the route they were taking to get out of here. The solar system that their temporary hiding place had been located in was filled with space junk from the early-on conquests of the planets farther from the sun's orbit-- pieces of alien ships and their remnant tech, from thousands of years ago. Fluorite had told him that space battles weren't uncommon for when Gems colonized new planets for resources, since not every planet with sapient life was new enough that they were still in the Stone Age. Lars tried not to think about what must have happened here that would leave only debris behind from a civilization that had reached the stars.

Thinking of planetary annihilation made him think of Star Wars, and then-- "Wait a second," Lars said out loud. "Maybe we have to scan to figure out what's going on. Is there a way we can do, like, an open call or something? Like a Skype invitation but for any Gem?"

Rhodonite stared. "Well, I don't know what Skype is, but yes, we can hail them, if we can find their signal-- are you suggesting that we  _contact_ our attackers? What if they take that as disrespect?"

Lars summoned every memory of movie heroes that he possessed and said, "They're already shooting out our engines-- I'd say she's disrespecting _us_."

"Lars, I've got a signal!" 

Steven glanced at Connie and reached out a hand, twirled her around-- and a bright light pulled their bodies together into a larger form-- a  _fusion._ Lars stared. "Wait, you can fuse? I feel like I knew that already." Their fusion looked  _really,_ really familiar, too... whatever, he'd think about it later. The Pearl was staring at the two of them, face entirely blank even as her eyes went wide and confused. 

"It's so she won't recognize Steven as a fugitive," Stevonnie explained. Lars remembered where he'd seen them before and felt his face go hot. "Uh, Pearl? Maybe you should hide? I don't know if she knows you're here."

The Pearl glanced down at the fusion's gem, then up at Stevonnie, and bowed her head. She folded herself behind the captain's chair so she would stay out of sight. Lars didn't even care to wonder what that was about. "Okay, Rutiles?" he said, with more bravery than he felt, "Call 'er up."

A screen materialized in front of the bridge, and after a moment a furious green face filled its center. "Thieves! How dare you  _call me--_ what in stars are you supposed to be?"

"Lars," one of the Rutiles hissed, "we won't be able to outrun her ship. Going into warp right now could tear the shuttle to pieces, with all the debris everywhere."

"We'd have to hide on a nearby planet," her sister said. "But she would just follow us down. Our shields won't hold against an ion cannon and we can't beat her troops in a fair fight. I don't know how we're going to get out of this."

"I have an idea," Lars muttered, then turned back to the screen. The idea was vague, still, so half-formed that Lars wouldn't risk analyzing it too closely lest it crumbled away, but it seemed promising. Lars dredged up every unhappy memory from Beach City Elementary drama club and grinned smugly at the camera. "You don't know who I am? Okay, then. You better write this down, because you'll be meeting me again. I'm Captain Lars, of the Off-Colors--" He posed, and heard Stevonnie choke back a laugh-- "And I'm your new arch nemesis."

"You're  _what?"_ Rhodonite hissed.

"You're _what_ ," Emerald said incredulously. A vein was twitching on her forehead. 

"Your new arch nemesis," Lars repeated mockingly. He hid his shaking hands by his side. "It's not that difficult a concept."

"I don't have an arch nemesis," Emerald gritted out. "And even if I did, it wouldn't be some puny  _organic_ with a band of defective gems!"

"Wow, rude," Lars drawled. "What do you call this, then? Calling me up just to chat before you shoot us out of the sky? That's not something you do for just anyone."

" _You_ called  _me!"_ the commander screeched. She kept ranting, and Lars took the opportunity to sneak back to Stevonnie and whisper the beginnings of his plan into their ear. Stevonnie nodded firmly, and Lars went back to being a colorful pink distraction before Emerald noticed he hadn't been listening.

"I guess denial's not just a river in Egypt," Lars said as soon as she paused. He leaned against the console in a way that always annoyed Sadie (and no, thank you, homesickness, now was not the time) and added, "But whatever you say, I guess."

"I care not for your puny  _Egypts!_ You aren't my enemy, you're a pest to be crushed beneath my gravity connectors!" Rutile mouthed,  _100%,_ and Lars nodded minutely. Loud and obnoxious. Yeah, he could do that. That was his whole schtick. That was what made him  _cool._

_Just a little longer..._

Lars snickered. "What the heck is a gravity connector?"

"They're what you walk on," Emerald gritted out. "Is your species so primitive that they don't have a _word_ for them?"

"Nah, we just call them 'feet'," Lars drawled, channeling every ounce of  _smug asshole_ that he'd ever possessed. "You know what I think, though? I think you can't help but respect someone with the skills to steal your shuttle from the most secure docking bay in the Empire, out from under Homeworld's nose. I've already outwitted you once. I think you just want to get even."

"Skill?" Emerald shrilled. "You got  _lucky!_ And that luck's going to run out once I  _blow you to space dust._ What do you have to say to that, Captain Lars?" Oh, God, she'd actually used the name. Lars wanted to laugh in triumph, and also wanted to throw up. They were still staring down the barrels of her ion cannons, what was he doing, this plan wouldn't work and they'd all just  _die--_

"I'd say that this reminds me of a saying," Lars said, catching the Rutiles' eyes and waiting. Right. Right. He wasn't alone. Steven was here, and a bunch of other gems were here, and they were all really weird, but they were more durable than humans. They might be okay.

A long pause. "You're waiting for me to ask clarification as to the saying," Emerald accused. Lars blinked innocently, feeling abruptly in control of the situation. Emerald had actually gone along with the wait. She'd actually-- "Well? What is it?"  _Oh my god._

"Two things." Lars held up a hand, and Stevonnie stepped up next to him. "One, fortune favors the brave. And two--"

Stevonnie gave a shit-eating grin and raised a fist in the air. "Death before dishonor!"

"Rutile, go!" The screen cut off on Emerald's indignant shriek, and the shuttle shot forward like an illegal firework out of a parking lot.

Here's the thing: Lars knew that the shuttle had two main engines, and three auxiliary engines that were used mostly for warp. One of the main engines was shot, and auxiliary engines were useless... but even with one engine, they could still get a lot of power. And if they dumped all the fuel from the auxiliary engines into the main one, it would overload the thermal matrix-- but not before they got enough of an unexpected boost to get away from Emerald's ion cannons. 

After that, they wouldn't need the engine; all the fuel could be dumped into the shield generators so they could try to survive an uncontrolled entry into the nearest planet's stratosphere. And the shuttle would fall apart, since it wasn't designed for this kind of thing, and Stevonnie could use Steven's shield to protect them, and hopefully Emerald would think that the  _stupid organic_ who'd challenged her had decided to die on his own terms...

Death before dishonor? Nah. Lars had never been that brave.

The planet loomed up in their view, and Lars pulled his hand away from the console as the inside of the ship started to heat up. They burst into the atmosphere, and the ground came closer and closer--

Lars  _really_ hoped Stevonnie's bubble would be enough to shield them all when the ship burned up around them. "Brace yourselves!" the Rutiles yelled as they pushed out of their seat. Stevonnie pulled Padparadscha and Fluorite out of the engine room and herded them toward the captain's chair, pulling all of the Off-Colors into a single group. Lars backed up and found himself face to face with White Pearl, whose face was neutral even as her eyes widened with fear. 

"We'll be fine," he assured her, though he was mostly trying to assure himself. "Steven's bubble is  _really strong."_

 _"_ Of course it is," the Pearl said blankly. "Why would a Diamond be weak?"

Lars blinked-- glanced at Stevonnie, whose gem was lighting up incandescent pink as they prepared for impact-- stared back at White Pearl. "Hold on, _what_ \--"

They hit the ground at over five hundred miles per hour, and the whole world went rosy-bright.


	4. Into The Wild

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome... to scenic Upsilon 9.

The stolen shuttle crashed with a deafening  _fwoom,_ metal screeching and bending red-hot as it fell apart around them, and the Pearl slammed into the side of the shield bubble with enough force to make her thoughts cut out to static. It was no fault of Pink Diamond's-- White Diamond had meddled with her mind enough to make her mind faint and jerky at the best of times, programming cutting through rational thought and saying  _obey obey obey_ even when no orders were given-- but the Pearl still cringed at the thought of telling her, once her mind had regained some part of its functionality. Had Pink Diamond expected to reverse White Diamond's customizations completely? Surely she wouldn't expect the Pearl to perform to  _her_ parameters, not if she hadn't given any-- but what if she had? What if making her whole had been only part of it, and there had been changes to her programming? If the Pearl couldn't access those changes-- if she couldn't follow Pink Diamond's specifications, her orders--

She had been taken along by accident, the Pearl knew. The organic 'Lars' had been frightened by her attack-- by  _White Diamond's_ attack, really, and hadn't her Diamond been amused by the spectacle of having a Pearl attack a  _human--_ and had damaged her enough that White- that _her_ Diamond had been unable to stay in her mind. 

And then she'd reformed among renegades, led by that same bright pink organic, and Pink Diamondhad appeared, greeting the renegades like trusted subordinates. Like equals _,_ almost, except that a Diamond had no equals. And she'd fused with an organic, bizarrely enough, but her gem had remained the same.

She didn't look like she'd used to, the Pearl thought. Not that she'd ever seen Pink Diamond, that she recalled, but she knew what she'd looked like just as well as she knew her own dimensions. Smaller than the other Diamonds, though still towering over any Quartz soldier, and lovely, bubbly, light-eyed and delighted by every little thing, reckless and inexperienced and confiding and  _trusting, ever trusting, even as-- as--_

The Pearl jerked back from her own corrupted memories, remembered conditioning drawing her back before she could examine them more closely. Serving White Diamond encompassed only an eternal present, moments slipping by and being lost whenever her Diamond wished it, bits and pieces from when her Diamond gazed through her eyes passing through her mind untouched. Why should she have to remember, unless White Diamond required it of her? Wasn't her Diamond's memory enough? A Pearl had no will of her own. They were not made for it. They were vessels for their mistresses' vanity, made to their liking and molded to serve them, perfect in their grace and their beauty and their endless, submissive docility-- not built for anything more strenuous than opening doors or carrying objects, with minds only suited for thoughts of service and of the aesthetic. 

She couldn't fathom how she'd come to be here, stolen by fugitives and crashing into the surface of a half-colonized planet. She was White Diamond's personal Pearl, arguably the highest-ranking Pearl in the Empire, in name if not in reality. She was modified to her Diamond's exacting standards-- was subject to her orders, to her agendas, to her whims _._ How could her Diamond have let her guard down enough to let her be taken in a _heist_ of all things? White Diamond had been amused, then surprised, then  _furious--_ and then the Pearl hadn't been able to feel her at all.

The thought that any Diamond, much less the eldest and most revered of their sacred matriarchs, could make a mistake... It was beyond comprehension, beyond programmed thought. It simply wasn't possible. The Diamond Authority was permanence, was stability, was perfection, as flawless in its judgment and foresight as its members. That its leader had underestimated an organic thief and had lost her  _Pearl_ because of it was unthinkable. 

It was, the Pearl realized, an insult to the Authority itself. Even Pink Diamond's presence, changed as her form was, wouldn't mollify White Diamond's inevitable wrath. The Pearl would likely be shattered if she were rescued-- for reminding her Diamond of such an embarrassment if nothing else. 

And Pink Diamond, in a tiny organic form, her gem in a different set, fused with an Earthling and carrying such a strange depth in her eyes-- being called  _Steven_ like the fugitives didn't even know who she was-- the Pearl couldn't understand it. She'd been dead _._ Rose Quartz of the Crystal Gems had shattered her like a defective Ruby, getting past all her retinue to destroy the kindest of the Diamonds, the most peaceful, the most  _new,_  like such a treasonous show of force could invite anything but retaliation in return.The Empire had laid ruin to the Earth for her crime. 

Pink Diamond didn't seem to recognize the Pearl at all, and she'd seemed confused at the mention of White Diamond, like she couldn't recall her elder past hearsay. Was it possible that she'd been wounded, and her memory had been affected in some way? Her gem seemed undamaged, but then, the Pearl had an undamaged gem, now, too. Perhaps-- and the Pearl shuddered at the thought-- perhaps she'd been found, in this weakened state, and had been taken advantage of before she could return to Homeworld. Perhaps  _she'd_ been stolen as much as the Pearl had.

Or, the Pearl thought, as the flaming wreckage of the shuttle was stomped out by the fugitives, and as Pink Diamond's fusion helped the Padparadscha to her feet and sent a relieved smile to the bright pink organic-- perhaps Pink Diamond, even maimed as she was, would prefer this ignorant freedom to the confines of a Diamond's expectations. Hadn't she always wished for excitement? Hadn't she begged for a colony, for an adventure, for a command? Even if the Authority could rescue her from this confused state and restore her to her proper glory-- maybe she would prefer the life of a fugitive. Maybe, maybe--

The Pearl couldn't begin to understand. For all she knew, Pink Diamond remembered everything and was following her own agenda. Or it could be a close-kept secret, Pink Diamond being used as some sort of agent in accordance with her wish for freedom. Or maybe she had  _chosen_ to forget, or had joined the rebellion, or was any number of things. A Pearl wasn't meant to question a Diamond, even a displaced one. How could she expect to know her superior's mind?

She finally gained enough control over her own thoughts to rise to her feet and picked her way carefully out of the rubble. There wasn't much left of the shuttle, except for the interior and some remnants of the bridge. Looking around showed her a few scorching pieces of metal strewn high in the trees and an utterly horrifying wreck. If it hadn't been for Pink Diamond's bubble, they would never have survived without being dissipated or shattered. The organic probably wouldn't have survived at all.

"Hey, um," a voice came from behind her. The Pearl turned around to see Lars, who seemed singed but more or less unharmed. "Are you okay? Like, are you hurt or anything?"

The Pearl found her voice. "I am functioning adequately," she said, a little stiltedly. "The bubble was... strong." She faltered, unsure what to do with her body now she was out of her usual posture. Did she still raise up her hands? Fold them in front of her? What did she do with her face? Lars, at least, and many other gems, had flinched to see her smile. At the time she'd thought it was for the power she represented, but now it seemed that it may have been her expression, too.

Everything seemed faint and disjointed, at odds with reality. She couldn't really be here, out of her mistress's control, with a dead Diamond and a group of defective gems. At any moment she'd open her eyes and discover that it was all a lie, some test from White Diamond to see how she'd react if she were stolen-- how quickly her loyalties would fade, how fast she'd decide not to escape.

She'd be punished, then. She was always punished when her thoughts exceeded what was allowed. 

Lars was watching her. "Right," he said reluctantly. "Yeah, I mean, sure, I guess it was. Steven's... pretty strong."

"Lars?" the Rhodonite interrupted. "Lars, I think we should probably move. That Emerald saw where we crashed. Also," she sighed, "I think we're about to fall through the branches."

Lars straightened up and looked around him, and for the first time, the Pearl did, too."Wait, the _what_?"

They  _weren't_ on the planet's surface. Instead, they were above it. The wreckage was surrounded by deep purple trees that rose up far past their perception and braided their branches together above their heads; below their feet was a fully braided platform of the same springy branches. It gapped at intervals, near the trunks of the trees, and below the platform where the sunlight seeped in showed only more trunk, going farther and farther into dark oblivion. The Pearl blinked. She'd never realized how interesting uncolonized planets could be.

"I predict that Emerald will be flustered by Lars's attempt to become her arch nemesis," the Padparadscha piped up out of nowhere. Behind her, the combined Rutiles were poking at one of the tree trunks and chatting with the monstrous fusion. 

"Really? _Still_?" 

"Rhodonite, come look at this strange primate! It has two heads like we do!"

Some sort of tiny organic creature, many-legged and deep purple, was crawling on a leaf. The Pearl watched it for lack of anything better to do and waited for her captors to focus and come to a consensus on their next course of action. Surely Pink Diamond would soon intervene--

"It's like a platformer game!" Pink Diamond's fusion gasped, squandering the Pearl's hopes completely and gazing up at the smaller branch platforms above them. "Lars, this is  _so cool."_

"Yeah, well it'll be a lot  _less_ cool if we all get vaporized from orbit when we don't move on," Lars griped. _Yes,_ the Pearl thought in exasperation,  _thank you._ Didn't these outlaws want to survive the next few hours? "Think we can get below the branches?"

"We might," Pink Diamond's fusion said uncertainly. "Wouldn't a big hole in the platform be kind of a clue, though?" The Pearl opened her mouth, thought better of interjecting, then closed it. Unfortunately, the fusion had already noticed. "Oh! Pearl, did you have an idea?"

"Yes, my-- yes," the Pearl faltered, cutting off with a deep bow. "I can-- that is, my-- White Diamond, when she customized me, gave me some abilities-- I may be able to assist, if you wish it." Talking under her own power was harder than it had any right to be.

"Really? That's really cool!" Pink Diamond's fusion said with a smile. "Well, the abilities are cool. What White Diamond did would be a lot less cool." They frowned. The Pearl watched them, bewildered, then bowed again just to be safe. 

"If I may? I will use them to get us below the branches," she said, glancing up at the broken-up platforms above them. If that Emerald admiral had sent a ship down after them after all, it would be incredibly obvious where they had landed.

"Maybe not yet," Pink Diamond's fusion said. "If we travel up here for a while longer, we can probably avoid being attacked by whatever's on the surface for longer. There has to be a reason all these smaller animals are up here instead of down there, right? We just have to make sure we don't leave an obvious trail."

"Right," Lars grumbled. "Well, let's get going, then." He started walking in a random direction, and as he passed the Pearl he gave her a long, confused look. She was too shaken to be startled when the Rutiles called that Lars was going the wrong way.

*

"According to my calculations, we're on the uncolonized side of Upsilon 9," one of the Rutiles said, tapping at a screen as she walked.

"There _should_ be a base nearby," said her copy. The two of them looked at each other as if they were having a silent conversation, then the copy added, "The only useful transportation here would have to be found at the cosmic jubilee being held on the colonized half." A cosmic jubilee? The Pearl thought she could remember going to one of those. She couldn't imagine hiding a bunch of defective gems in the middle of a crowd of aristocrats.

"Great," Rhodonite moaned, echoing the Pearl's thoughts completely. "How are we supposed to get over there? Not to mention the fact that we're a bunch of fusions and Off-Colors-- you think they'll just overlook that if we're in a big enough group?"

"There should be a warp pad at the base," the first Rutile said. "We could always use that."

"But then the problem's how we get through the jubilee," Pink Diamond's fusion hummed. "I think I have an idea for that. First we should find the base, though. I look more like a gem as a fusion, right?"

"What's that have to do with anything?" Lars asked. Then: "Wait, you mean-- we're gonna impersonate normal _gems_?"

"That's going to be hard to do," Rhodonite said, glancing at the other Off-Colors. "There's a reason we were driven from Gem society, after all."

The fusion looked a little guilty. The Pearl couldn't imagine why, unless it was the organic's natural shame at daring to fuse with a Diamond bleeding through. In that case, the Pearl wouldn't blame them.

"You were replaced because you liked to fuse," they said. "Right? Because they knew who you were. But no one's gonna know who you are here. As long as you  _seem_ normal--"

"Oh!" Rhodonite gasped. "You mean we should  _unfuse?"_

The fusion winced. "Not if you don't want to," they said. "I just... think it would be easier to blend in if you did, same with Fluorite. And it wouldn't be a long time-- just long enough for us to get through the jubilee without being caught by Homeworld."

Rhodonite hugged herself. "I don't know," she mumbled, sounding like she didn't really care who was listening. "It's-- what if we're separated? We can't-- I'm no good on my own--"

"You won't be on your own," Pink Diamond's fusion said firmly. "You'll be with us. And Off-Colors stick together."

Rhodonite sighed. "All right. But only when we reach the base. And only if Fluorite does, too."

"Thanks, Rhodonite," Pink Diamond's fusion said, and their smile made the Pearl's gem warm.

The outer base was nearly half a planetary cycle of travel away, reachable only through thick purple forest. The spindly, skyscraper-tall trees wove into each other as they grew, creating thick platforms above the forest floor and shrouding the ground in almost complete darkness. The thick braided branches beneath their feet felt springy and light, loose with lack of gravity; Pink Diamond's fusion and Lars couldn't seem to acclimate to the change in weight and kept floating up with every step, jumping feet at a time in what was rapidly becoming a game.

The Pearl likened Lars and Connie to the deep violet primates that watched and screeched at them from the trees, given their similar morphological structure, and attributed Pink Diamond's lack of gravity control despite her gem to her being fused with an organic. 

The other gems were hardly better: the Fluorite, a horrifying mass of gems, slowed the whole group, and Rhodonite had to babysit the Padparadscha Sapphire, who couldn't seem to turn her future vision-- maybe past vision?-- off. The two Rutiles were somehow the only truly competent members of the outlaws, nimble and clever enough to scout ahead and make sure that gem ships weren't able to detect them from above. 

The Pearl didn't consider Pink Diamond-- called  _Steven,_ for some reason, and in a fusion  _Stevonnie--_ an outlaw. Her alliances were her own and not to be questioned by a lowly Pearl.

She considered trying to hail a passing ship for help, but something in her gem stopped her before she could make the attempt. And anyway, she reasoned, a Pearl could hardly be expected to take such initiative. If she were stolen, she would naturally behave like any other possession, and would not violate her programming by exhibiting a will of her own.

_(A good Pearl has no will of her own.)_

_(Have you forgotten your place again, my dear? Perhaps you need a reminder--)_

"Pearl? Are you all right?" The Pearl snapped to attention and came face-to-face with the Rhodonite fusion. Her mind went blank. What was she supposed to do here? Did the Rhodonite outrank her? But it seemed like one of her components was a Pearl-- could the Rhodonite outrank herself? These were some of the myriad problems with hybrid fusions, the Pearl decided, and a very good reason why they were illegal. "You seemed a little sad," the Rhodonite explained pointlessly.

Still. She'd been stolen. That made these outlaws her new owners, didn't it? And if Pink Diamond ( _her_ Diamond, she thought, and refused to analyze the compulsion) held them in some esteem... "I am running under acceptable conditions," she told the Rhodonite as she had told Lars, hoping that an honorific was unnecessary. "My gem is no longer damaged." Her voice didn't have the same ring to it that it had had under White Diamond's control. 

The Rhodonite blinked. "O-oh. All right, then. If you want to talk, though, we can do that." Her eyes held more sympathy than the Pearl could stand. How could some two-bit Pearl who'd fused with a _Ruby_ of all gems know what it was like to serve a Diamond? She kept her face carefully blank.

The base came into view sometime in midday, a few towers sticking up out of the canopy platforms giving word to its presence. "Looks like we're gonna have to go down," Pink Diamond's fusion said.

Lars poked at one of the towers and jumped back with a hiss of pain. "It shocked me!"

"That's probably to repel the primates," one of the Rutiles suggested. "They could cause damage to the structure."

Pink Diamond's fusion-- Stevonnie-- frowned. "We could probably just float down, right? Except-- no, we don't know if they have lookouts. We can't risk being caught before we get to a new shuttle."

"Maybe we could make a rope," Lars suggested, lifting a springy vine and squinting at it suspiciously. "This isn't a snake, right?" It moved, and he shrieked, throwing it away from him. "Okay, nope, that's not working-- maybe we can scout it out beforehand or something?"

The Pearl folded her hands demurely--  _such_ a better position than having her arms raised, she thought, and immediately flinched in preparation for--

 _Nothing_. She reeled at the lack of feedback.

At the moment, so far from White Diamond and after being so damaged, her mind was her own. She'd have to speak out loud before she was punished for improper thoughts. The thought bolstered her.

"Oh! Pearl," said Stevonnie suddenly, and the Pearl stiffened. "I forgot, sorry, didn't you say that you could get us down there? Could it work for all of us?"

She'd been asked for her input. That meant she could answer with impunity, so long as she knew her place. "Perhaps-- I can get a small group into the base," the Pearl ventured, watching the fusion's face for any sign of anger. "White-- _my_ Diamond lent me the ability to make myself and other gems intangible for a short amount of time, so that I could serve her more effectively. I may be able to use that now."

"Sure, whatever, _anything_ to get us out of here," Lars griped. Pink Diamond's fusion grinned.

"Okay! Thanks, Pearl. What do we have to do?" Trusting her so quickly? Of course, she'd never offer her abilities in bad faith-- who was  _she_ to decide who she belonged to?-- but the fusion had no way of knowing that. Still, perhaps as a Diamond, she knew that betraying her meant death-- that it was more unthinkable than hybrid fusion and rebellion combined. Of course she wouldn't expect treachery. Nobody here was a _Crystal Gem_. 

The Pearl bowed low. "If it pleases you, I would ask that you gather together more closely." The group huddled into each other. The Pearl bowed again, struck with sudden terror that her abilities would fail her and she would  _disappoint_ and if they left her, if they chose to punish her-- she couldn't fail her Diamond, or at least not Pink Diamond, she  _couldn't--_

The Pearl focused her scattered thoughts to a solid  _purpose,_ hiding her shaking hands, then assumed the pose that White Diamond always had her keep: arms raised and bent at the elbow, palms facing upward in decorative symmetry, face set in a perfect smile. The bubble rose up around the group and herself like it always did, and the Pearl stifled a sound of relief. 

She wouldn't have had to stifle anything under White Diamond, since her thoughts had been stifled  _for_ her. She didn't know how she felt about the change.

"Whoa," Stevonnie breathed, and the Off-Colors made sounds of appreciation. "You can make bubbles too?"

The Pearl nodded, face still set, and slowly lowered them through the canopy floor. 

Intangibility was difficult, when she was transporting so many others along with her. Stealth was harder, since she'd never been asked to achieve it before. She focused and dimmed the bubble to almost nothing, sinking down through the foliage like a silent mirage until they hit the forest floor. When she dissipated the bubble, they were encased in total darkness.

After a moment, Pink Diamond's gem lit up, and the group was bathed in dim pinkish light. Rhodonite lit her Pearl's gem, and the Pearl lit her own, and then they could begin to see. "That was really cool," Stevonnie told her, gaze so bright and intense that she ceased to think until her Diamond's gaze drifted to the forest around them. " _This_ is really cool, too. Just look at that root structure!" Was that an order? The Pearl looked at the root structure, just in case.

"It's really  _creepy,_ is what it is," Lars complained. "We don't even know what lives down here!" He bent over and picked up a long branch, hefting it like it was a weapon. 

"Gems live down here," Rhodonite quavered. "Isn't that bad enough?" The Pearl noticed a long, deep set of scratches on one of the thick shadowed trunks and wondered how big a creature would have to be to mark its territory with claws of that size. Perhaps the organic had the right idea. Gems might not be the greatest threat, if they couldn't get into the base.

"I predict that we will land within an unused part of the base," Padparadscha informed them, "and that a Ruby will observe our arrival."

"Wait," the Rutiles said. " _What_?" The group moved closer together, and Lars lifted his branch menacingly. Pink Diamond's fusion straightened up and looked around as the dim outline of a pink shield formed at their arm.

The predicted Ruby stepped out from the darkness, fire licking at her hands as she pointed them warningly. "I should be asking you that!" she said, high-pitched and outraged. "This is  _not_ the approved entry station! Who are you?"

The Pearl noticed the Off-Color fusions backing out of the light. Stevonnie cleared their throat. "Well--" Twin flashes of light, and the Ruby was looking past them suspiciously--

"How  _dare_ you even ask me that!" Lars cut in, striding forward. The Pearl felt a burst of anger at the interruption of a Diamond, but it swiftly melted into confusion. What was the organic even  _doing?_ "What's your number, Ruby?"

Behind her, the Pearl heard someone murmuring to the Padparadscha Sapphire.

"You mean my designation?" the Ruby asked, looking off-balance. "Ruby Facet 56 Cut 7NK, um. My, um. What are you?"

"She's a Morganite," Pink Diamond's fusion cut in. "Her gem's just under her hair, so you can't see it. And I'm, um. I'm a pink Amethyst! Yeah, I'm like, an Amethyst, but pink. A normal gem."

Evidently, the Pearl thought blasphemously and a little guiltily, neither Pink Diamond nor the organic had been trained in subterfuge. 

The Ruby squinted. "They don't make those any more," she accused. "Not since Pink Diamond died! They look too much like Rose Quartz."

Lars rolled his eyes. "Obviously, Ruby. Why do you think she's stuck serving way out here?  _I_ just thought that since she's pink she makes a good contrast to my colors." He fluffed up his hair like a vain Agate. "Can't you tell?"

"Of course, my Morganite," the Ruby said, looking between them in obvious confusion. "That... makes sense? I guess? And, uh, what about the rest of you?"

"Is that  _any_ of your business?" Lars demanded. 

"Well, yes, actually, I was put here specifically to guard the base--"

"Nope! It isn't. Look, Ruby 7NJ--"

"7NK--"

"Whatever! I'll report you either way-- for delaying my arrival to the cosmic jubilee  _and_ for correcting me. I'll let it slide, though, if you agree to go to the other side of the base and stay there, and to stay away from the warp pad."

The Ruby bristled. "Why should I do that? But that's leaving my post!"

"Not if you're ordered by a superior gem," Stevonnie cut in. They moved forward into the light, pulling Padparadscha with them surreptitiously, and the Pearl moved with them without thinking, keeping her pose demure and her movement graceful. The Ruby blanched when she saw them. 

"I-- your Clarity!" She saluted immediately, fire fizzling out from her palms. "My apologies, I didn't see you there!"

"That's all right," Padparadscha said, a strange note of hesitance in her voice. "We need to get into the base." 

"Of course," the Ruby squeaked, glancing from Lars to the Pearl to Padparadscha like she'd only just realized she was outranked. The Pearl felt a little annoyed that she didn't send Pink Diamond's fusion a second glance. Even if she didn't see a Diamond, she would still do well to realize that a Quartz was able to outfight a lone  _Ruby._ Where was this gem's squad? Her _supervisor?_ And to be outsmarted so easily, even for a Ruby, was rather disgraceful. It was kind of funny, though. "I-- you want me to-- to leave my post? Go to the other side of the base? Why?"

"That's above your clearance level," Lars told her imperiously. "An imperial officer's duties aren't the realm of a Ruby, are they?" The Ruby shook her head, eyes widening with something perilously close to hero worship. "You have to be away from this area. For at  _least_ a few hours," Lars added with a glare. The Ruby gulped and nodded hard.

"Of course, my Morganite! I, uh, I'll do that now. Do you know where the warp pad is? Oh, of course _you_ do, your Clarity-- I mean--"

"It would be nice if you could show us," Pink Diamond's fusion said with an awkward smile. The Ruby nodded again, then waved a hand. 

"Okay, um, come this way..." She led them to a half-hidden entrance and waited awkwardly; the Pearl walked forward and opened the door for everyone, easily ignoring the Ruby's wondering stare. Lesser castes were often amazed at the presence of Pearl servants. Pink Diamond's fusion, Lars, and Padparadscha followed the Ruby inside, and behind them came the rest.

Oh, the Pearl thought, staring at the large group of gems. That would explain the flash.

A Citrine, two Rubies, an Era 1 Peridot, an Era 1 Aquamarine, and a Jasper, grouped so close together as to be nearly indecent, made their way into the base. The Pearl saw over the Rubies' heads that they were hiding the anomalous parts of the Rutiles, making the conjoined gems seem like two separate ones. Following the cluster of gems were another Ruby and an disheveledpink Pearl, whose appearance made the Pearl want to scold her for slacking off-- an impulse that sent her mind into tumultuous confusion, since she'd never actually had the opportunity to speak with other Pearls under White Diamond. The pink Pearl gave her a watery smile, and the Pearl inclined her head in return, old servant-signs coming back to her without conscious thought. That... raised questions, didn't it. The Pearl resolved to ignore them.

She took one last careful glance into the root-catacombs of Upsilon 9, wondering if the predator who had made those deep scratches or a platoon of elite Citrines was about to come bursting out of the darkness to shatter them all, before she followed the outlaws into the darkened base.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For this story, I should add, I'm going with a ton of headcanons, since we know jack about White Diamond and White Diamond's Pearl in canon. So basically this is all gonna get hilariously jossed sooner rather than later, but whatever. 
> 
> I'm using the headcanon that White Pearl used to belong to Pink Diamond. I'm also using my own headcanon on what happened to have her transferred to White, because why not.
> 
> Comments and kudos are always appreciated. 
> 
> :)


	5. All The World's A Stage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Get prepared... for the biggest party of Lars's life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much action in this chapter, but it's good setup, I think.

The Gem base was darker than Lars was used to seeing inside  _any_ building-- nearly as dark as the old Kindergarten caverns back on Homeworld. The Homeworld Ruby had told them before she went to the other side of the base (wow, Lars could  _not_ believe that had worked) that it was to keep from attracting the native predators, which were both repulsed and provoked by light. A lot of dim light, or a small bright light, kept them away; a large bright light brought them like monstrous, rabid moths to a camping lantern. 

Every wall had the same clean mineral aesthetic as Homeworld, but with signs of wear creeping in through the edges, purple vines peeking through cracks in the stone and tiny insects creeping along the ceiling and occasionally dropping to float like balloons down to the floor. Hallways went down farther than they could see, ending in black oblivion, and occasional chirps and shrieks echoed through them and made the root-cave animals seem a lot closer than they hopefully were. Even surrounded with a huge group like he was, Lars felt himself creeping closer to the others. It felt like he was about to be dragged away by a Xenomorph or something. 

Lars had never really thought about aliens. Ronaldo had always gone on about them, obviously, 'snake people' this and 'deep space lunacracy' that, but then, Ronaldo had always been  _crazy._ Aliens were Vulcans on Star Trek, were Jabba the Hutt, were little green men on keychains in New Mexico. Aliens were conspiracy talk.

And yet he'd lived among them all of his life-- had snarked at them and avoided them in grocery store hallways, had sold them donuts and gone to movies sitting a row behind them. The Crystal Gems had just... always been there.

It felt a lot like realizing that not every family had a lot of extended relatives who liked to stay over back when he was ten--an abrupt paradigm shift, where everything familiar turned uncanny. How many times had Lars chatted with a friend online and mentioned the Gems? He remembered a conversation he'd had when he was fourteen, with one of the kids he gamed with online-- how he'd mentioned his backyard had been devastated by a monster attack, which the Gems had stopped-- and how the kid had assumed he was still talking in character. 

These Gems were _alien_. Without the cushion of familiar personalities and familiar locations, they were horribly, noticeably different. Stevonnie didn't seem to notice, but then, Stevonnie (or at least Steven) had been raised by Gems. They  _were_ a Gem. All this must have just felt like coming home. Lars didn't have that luxury.  

Gem skin was perfectly unblemished, light made flesh, and when they were injured they didn't bleed-- just got scuffed up, like action figures. When they had all been in the caverns, the Off-Colors had stayed up constantly, minds always on, never sleeping or even tiring, like programs set to run until further notice. Almost off-handedly, they'd rest or think and go perfectly still, if they weren't a fidgeter, and then they'd be indistinguishable from the rock around them-- colorful, yeah, but unnaturally quiet. And their gems--

They were  _rocks._ Rocks, with programming and feelings and weird solid-hologram bodies and the ability to combine into different people-- but they were  _rocks._ If, say, they all broke into some rich guy's hoard of jewels and one of them got poofed, Lars wouldn't be able to tell them apart from the normal gemstones. They didn't eat, they didn't have to go to the bathroom, they only blinked and had saliva or did anything because they felt like it. They didn't even have to  _breathe._

And it seemed like they only existed to expand and expand, making more of themselves until resources ran out... but hey, Lars wasn't dumb. That was probably the most familiar thing about them.

A balloon-bug crawling over his shoe jolted him out of his mindless walking. Lars jumped back and _shrieked_. 

Stevonnie startled and summoned their shield-- the Quartzes pulled out their weapons-- Rhodonite Pearl cried out and grabbed her Ruby hysterically-- and the shriek echoed, unanswered. In the distance, the insects stopped chirping and then started again. Padparadscha said reprovingly, "I predict that Lars will be startled by a harmless insect and put the rest of us on edge."

Some of Fluorite's components stopped muttering among themselves and fanned out to cover their group more easily-- the Citrine and the Jasper especially moved toward the edges and held themselves more tensely. The two Rubies inched closer to Rhodonite's Ruby, who was holding the pink Pearl's hand. They all looked like they expected to be attacked at any moment.

Stevonnie glanced worriedly between everyone and said, "I'm sure it's safe enough here, right? We have a ton of gems, we could totally fight off a monster. The Crystal Gems fight monsters all the time!"

"Really?" one of the Rutiles asked. Her sister was clutching her hand. "Why? I didn't think Earth had ever had monsters."

Stevonnie grimaced. "They're actually not _from_ Earth. It's a long story-- it has to do with the Gem War." They raised their shield to cast extra light and asked, "Do you think it's just so quiet because of the jubilee? Maybe everyone went over there, since it's such a big event."

"That doesn't explain why everything's so run down," Lars grumbled. To think he'd thought the employee break room at the Big Donut had been bad. This place was a  _dump._

"It's more likely that it's due to this being the  _uncolonized_ side of the planet," White Pearl said. She clapped her hands over her mouth just after and looked  _mortified._

"Really?" Stevonnie asked. "That's cool. So it's just to make sure that there's some Gems here? Just in case?"

White Pearl nodded, wide-eyed and blinking hard. Lars scoffed internally at whatever shy act she had going on, then thought about it for a second. If White Diamond had damaged her before...

Yeah, maybe he wouldn't laugh. He was starting to like the Diamonds even  _less._

The Rutiles went over to one of the walls and tapped until a screen appeared. "It's a map," one of them explained, while her sister frowned and brought up another page. "We have to find the warp pad, right?"

Stevonnie bounded over. "That's a good idea! You can't warp once you get there, though-- I gotta go, to bring back some supplies."

"Like what? None of us actually have to eat," Lars pointed out. He hoped, a little guiltily, that Stevonnie would stay to help them get through the jubilee. He didn't want to have to be the leader of the Off-Colors.  _Stevonnie_ could lead, so they could deal with everything. Stevonnie led people like other people breathed!

He felt a pang of jealousy at the thought of all the Off-Colors looking to Stevonnie instead of him and smothered it.

"If you're going to sneak into a giant space party," Stevonnie was saying grandiosely, "you're going to need disguises. I'm going to borrow a ton of stuff from Jamie and Vidalia and come back here as fast as I can, okay? So don't warp once you find the pad, just-- hold tight."

"This sounds risky," Rhodonite Pearl said, glancing nervously from Stevonnie to the other Off-Colors. "It sounds risky to you, too, right?" Her Ruby nodded. "See! How are we supposed to do this? None of us have been in Gem society for centuries! And there's so many of us-- how are we all going to sneak in?"

Stevonnie looked at Lars, and just like that Lars knew what they wanted them all to do. "I'll explain," he promised with a nod, and Stevonnie stepped through his hair into the pocket dimension that would lead to Earth.

"Explain what?" Rhodonite Ruby quavered.

Lars took a deep breath. He'd seen enough movies to know how this would go. "Tell me, Ruby," he said, standing straighter, "You ever heard of refuge in audacity?"

*

Pink Diamond’s fusion dipped the brush into the tub of pink liquid and pulled it out gently, scraping it along the edge of the container to get off the extra coloring before touching the hairs to the Pearl’s face. The Pearl kept still, bewildered out of her habitual smile, and watched her Diamond work. Whatever purpose Pink Diamond had in bringing these disguises and applying them when they could simply assert their authority was beyond the Pearl.

Still. She would not question such a natural superior. Not this one. Not  _ever._

The brush was a soft touch on her cheek. Where it pulled along her skin, it left coolness behind. The paint would take some time to dry. This was necessary because of their theft of the Pearl. The Pearl was the only one of her caste with her bleached-white color, and combined with her gem placement and outfit she would surely be recognized immediately anywhere in Gem Space. Pink Diamond’s fusion had first suggested shapeshifting, and when to her shame the Pearl had found herself unable to change her color by magical means, they had promised that she wouldn’t have to dissipate her form, since doing so so soon after she’d healed would be unwise.

Instead, the fusion had said, they would _improvise_. The Pearl didn't think she'd imagined the shiver of familiarity that came over her at the phrase. The Pink Diamond she thought she remembered had liked to improvise, too.

"Let's go over the plan again," Lars said. He pointed at the Rhodonite's components. "You're going to join Padparadscha and make sure she doesn't give us away. Padparadscha, you're going to act like a fancy Sapphire." A long moment passed. The Padparadscha Sapphire nodded.

"Fluorite--" Lars motioned at the six gems. "Rubies, you'll be with Rhodonite Ruby and Pearl. Um, green one and tall Aquamarine, you'll be with them too. Buff ones, you're with Stevonnie."

"Wait, why are we splitting up?" one of the Fluorite Rubies asked. "We shouldn't-- I don't want to split up!" The other Ruby shook her head mutely and pressed close to the first one. 

"It's because of what we discussed," the fusion said patiently. "Remember? We have--" They checked the paint on the Pearl's body, glancing past her shape-shifted pale pink clothes, and stood up. "-- two objectives!" They started to put their hands on their hips and checked themselves just before they were splattered in pink handprints. "The first one is to make it through the cosmic jubilee without being found out by Emerald or anyone from Homeworld. The second one is to find and steal another ship that can help all of you get off-planet without getting caught. We're splitting up because we need to be able to fan out and get lost in the crowd. Our rendezvous point will be in the docking bay, which Ruby 7NK said we could get to on the other side of the jubilee."

"Right," Lars agreed. "So Stevonnie's going to scout out the docking bay and come back to us with info on where it is. We're going to blend in and cause distractions if we need to. The end result should be us getting out of the jubilee and everyone thinking we're just normal gems."

"I predict that this won't sound like a good idea," Padparadscha said nervously. 

"Yes," Rhodonite Pearl said, "Are you sure you need all of us here? Maybe some of us can camp out in your head for this."

"We'll probably have to," one of the Rutiles said reluctantly. "The Ruby saw the rest of us coming in, though."

" _Plus_ we might need the firepower."

"As if any of us could fight off a whole platoon of Citrines!?

The Pearl saw Pink Diamond's fusion grimace at the growing panic and order, "Let's talk about something else. Hey, Pink Pearl, Ruby, how did you two meet?"

"We worked under the same Morganite," the Ruby said, worry morphing to polite confusion. She kept stealing glances at the pink Pearl like she couldn't keep her eyes away from her face. "We already told you," she added uncertainly. "Didn't we?"

"Well, sure, but that's not what I meant. What I'm trying to ask is, what's the first time you saw each other? When did you first fuse? You know, couple stuff."

_Couple stuff?_

"O-oh." The pink Pearl wrung her fingers. "I suppose-- it was just after my Morganite had been assigned to the base? I was new, so I wasn't very good at my job. I dropped an important item, and Ruby picked it up and gave it back to me before my mistress could notice." Her cheeks dusted pink. "Our fingers touched. I hadn't ever touched another gem before."

The Ruby added quietly, "I'd been watching her for a few days by then. I'd never seen a Pearl before. I'd never realized how nice they could be."

The fusion went starry-eyed. "That's the most beautiful story I've ever heard," they whispered. The Pearl saw Lars roll his eyes. 

"Can we _please_ get back on topic?"

Pink Diamond's fusion ignored him, as was their right. "What about you, Fluorite? How did all of you meet?"

The Fluorite fusion components launched into their story. The Pearl tuned them out.

She needed to focus. A Diamond's Pearl was asked to do more than normal Pearls-- asked to be worthy of a Diamond's regard. She was able to think, and in this situation, she thought, she might even be encouraged to do so. What did she think was going on? She'd hazarded a guess or two, but she would hardly be able to serve effectively if she were kept in this state of confusion. Pink Diamond hadn't controlled her mind like White Diamond had. Pink Diamond had no way of expecting anything from her except, perhaps, to serve the pirates who'd stolen her while Pink Diamond... inhabited Lars's head. Or something. 

How confusing. So the pirates had been disorganized and had barely gotten off Homeworld, disrupting White Diamond's investigations of the Emerald and stealing the Pearl in what seemed to have been a complete accident. And then, instead of disposing of the dead weight they'd picked up like any reasonable outlaws, or even attempting to ransom the Pearl for their own safety (as if  _that_ would have happened), they had kept her around.

And then Pink Diamond and a random human had come out of Lars's head, fused, helped to challenge that same Emerald, and crash-landed the ship on a half-colonized planet. 

It  _did_ seem like something Pink Diamond would do. She tuned back in just as the Aquamarine asked, "And how did _you_ meet, Stevonnie?" 

The fusion blinked. "Oh! Um. Steven saved Connie from being crushed by a rock fall, and they became friends. They didn't become me until later, though-- that was even before Connie joined the Crystal Gems."

"That's a wonderful story," the Jasper said, hand to her chest. The Aquamarine nodded along. "So you're a Crystal Gem?"

"Yes," Pink Diamond said with a grin, and the Pearl's newly crafted worldview shattered. Her hands jerked where she held them tucked against her. "Why wouldn't I be? Steven was raised by them!"

_Raised?_ What was  _raised?_ The Pearl knew who Pink Diamond was, who she'd been when she'd just formed and after. The Pearl  _knew,_ even if the source of her knowledge escaped her. This wasn't right. This wasn't--

"But they hate you," slipped out without her consent. The fusion-- a human-gem fusion, of course they were a Crystal Gem, of course there had to be a layer here that the Pearl didn't understand-- turned to her with an expression of confusion. "They  _hate you._ Why would you join them?"

Stevonnie's brow furrowed. "What do you mean? They hate who?"

"The  _Crystal Gems,"_ the Pearl forced out, "hate  _Pink Diamond._ They always hated Pink Diamond, that was their whole  _point--_ what does raised mean? Why would you join them? Why are you  _acting_ like this?"

"Acting like what," the fusion said blankly. "Like-- myself? Wait, you think I'm  _Pink Diamond?"_ They raised up a hand like they were trying to ward something off; their smile had become fixed, wavering, more reflexive than true-- "I'm sorry, I'm not a Diamond. I'm a  _Rose Quartz._ Steven's mother was Rose Quartz." They were looking at her like they thought she would _break_. "Pink Diamond's dead. Steven's mom killed her."

"No," the Pearl insisted, even against her own instincts screaming at her not to contradict her new owner. "No, I--" Why was everyone looking at her like that? Everyone except the organic Lars, with such expressions of pity and bewilderment, like they thought she was delusional. "I received footage of the trials," she said more steadily. "My Diamond-- White Diamond-- received the footage through me. The defense said that it was impossible that Pink Diamond could have been made defenseless right before her palanquin. That the results didn't match up with the evidence. That something was  _wrong._ Is that not true?"

"I-- yes, but--"

"A Diamond can psychically contact other Diamonds," the Pearl insisted. "A Diamond can-- do more than other gems, can exhibit powers that no other gem exhibits and to a greater degree, can project their own beliefs and emotions-- has none of that ever happened to you? Has anyone been able to tell you what happened to Pink Diamond  _exactly?"_

"It  _was_ weird how you brought me back to life," Lars cut in, and yes, _thank you,_ what gem type could resurrect organics? None, that was what. Except maybe a Diamond.

 "But my mom was Rose Quartz," Stevonnie said. The Pearl watched them nervously. "My-- Steven's mom was Rose Quartz, she couldn't have been a Diamond-- unless-- no, she wouldn't lie like that, that's not what happened-- but we don't know for sure, if you could just  _think_ about it-- I don't want to think about it!" The fusion clutched at their hair. "But-- but you-- Steven, don't you  _dare--"_

They fell to pieces.

*

Lars looked from Steven and Connie to the Off-Colors to White Pearl and grimaced. At least he could try to make himself useful. "Let's just... let them sort that out."

White Pearl was still and blank-faced again, like she'd been shocked back into not responding. Ugh, maybe while she was doing that she could reboot enough to remember what  _timing_ was. Lars hadn't been going to mention the whole Diamond thing until they had a new ship.

"They're fighting," Rhodonite Pearl said incredulously. "They-- they _unfused_ over this."

Lars shrugged awkwardly. "If it's true, it's pretty big news, so why not?"

"But Pink Diamond's dead," the green gem from Fluorite said. "Everyone knows _that._ Maybe that Pearl's gem's just scrambled."

"And if Steven is Pink Diamond--" Rhodonite Ruby started, and then stopped. "No, we can't talk about that now."

Rhodonite Pearl glanced back at Steven and Connie, who were actually  _arguing,_ and muttered, "That doesn't seem to be stopping _them_. Don't they know a fusion can't ever fight?"

_"How could she do this? She lied the whole time-- no wonder I can go into people's dreams! I knew Rose Quartz couldn't do that!"_

_"Steven, we can't afford to think about this right now--"_

Lars blinked. "What? Why not?" He thought back to past conversations with Steven and added, "I'm pretty sure Garnet's a fusion, and I think she's fought before." He  _thought_ Garnet was the fusion. He knew one of the Crystal Gems had unfused over something-- Steven got  _really_ talkative when he was ordering donuts-- but he couldn't really remember which one. 

"Is that one of the Crystal Gems?" Rutile asked. Her sister cocked her head curiously.

"Yeah, she's the tall one with the hair," Lars said. "Why shouldn't fusions fight?" He glanced back at White Pearl. Still quiet, still painfully still. He shook her shoulder and asked, "Hey, you wanna go over the plan again with Padparadscha and Fluorite?" The Pearl looked up at him vaguely, then bowed her head and made her way over to the others. Uh. Okay, then. Lars could deal with that later.  _Captain_ Lars could deal with that later.

_"This whole time, I thought she was a murderer. This whole time--  I turned myself in for her! I don't even know if the Gems know!"_

_"Steven!" Steven startled and stared at Connie. "We don't know the whole story. We can figure it out later, okay? Together! But right now we need to focus."_

_"Right." Steven blinked back tears. "Right, yeah. We need to focus."_

_Connie gave a tentative smile. "We've got a party to crash."_

"If they fight, they could be distracted or even get separated," Rhodonite Ruby explained. "It could kill them, if they get caught because they're trying to get back together. There's no reason to risk it."

" _That_ doesn't sound healthy." What would he and Sadie do if they just...  _couldn't fight?_ Maybe they could have duked things out in video games?

Lars realized he was comparing Sadie and himself to a  _permanent fusion_ and pushed the thought away. 

"Nothing about a fusion is healthy," Rhodonite Pearl said. "They aren't natural, remember?" 

"Who told you they aren't natural?" Stevonnie asked from behind the pink Pearl. She yelped and jumped a straight foot in the air. Stevonnie smiled sheepishly and gave a little wave. Part of their face twitched, but their expression stayed steady. "Sorry about that, guys. We just had to work something out." They frowned and looked around. "We should probably get going soon. Who  _knows_ when that Ruby's coming back. And where's White Pearl?"

Lars shrugged. "She kind of shut down after you unfused. I sent her over to talk to the others."

Stevonnie grimaced. "I hope she doesn't think we're mad at her. If Steven  _is_ Pink Diamond, it's better that she told us sooner rather than later."

"Whatever," Lars muttered. Drama was _so_ not his thing. "Just get everyone together so we can go, okay? We should get this over with."

*

"My Morganite!" the Ruby squeaked when they called her back. "Is there something wrong with the warp pad?" She didn't bat an eye at the changes in their clothes, though she sent White Pearl a confused glance. Fair enough, since she still smelled like paint. Could gems smell? Lars was pretty sure gems could smell. 

"Nothing at all," Lars said. "We just want information. You see, an old rival of mine is going to be at the jubilee-- an Emerald, and you know how stuck-up _those_ can be." The Ruby giggled. "So, as a rival imperial officer--" a rank Rhodonite had told him was common enough for Morganites-- "I want to make the best impression I can on her! Tell me, is there a way to get as much attention on our group as possible when we enter?"

 

The Ruby thought for a moment. "Yes! If you message the Iolite in charge of the event, she should be able to announce you as you enter." Rhodonite Pearl sent Lars a horrified stare. 

"Magnificent," Lars intoned. "Absolutely wonderful. Could I convince you to do that for me?" The Ruby nodded and tapped something out on a screen. 

"Done!" she squeaked proudly. Lars shared a glance with Stevonnie and waited for White Pearl to come up beside him. Stevonnie took Rhodonite Pearl and Rhodonite Ruby, along with the rest of Fluorite and Padparadscha-- their "mistress" for the event. "You may depart at any time, my Morganite."

"Thank you, Ruby." Lars spared one last look at the group and mentally promised the Rutiles that they wouldn't have to spend too long waiting in the pocket dimension. Then, pulling the cheap satin cape that Stevonnie had stolen from Jamie's prop stash around him like a shield, he stepped onto the warp pad and teleported.

They appeared in the middle of a collection of warp pads in a dark room. Above them was a mass of tangled roots that seemed to act as a ceiling. The only other gem present was a spiky-haired violet gem, with a long-suffering expression and a number of screens floating around her. 

"It's like everyone's rooms in the Temple!" Stevonnie whisper-hissed, and Lars squinted back into the darkness. At the end of the collection of warp pads was a tall door, dark like iron; it was the only other feature in the room.

"It means they're hosting it in a pocket dimension," Rhodonite Pearl explained quietly. "That's expensive tech, for implementation on such a huge scale. They've been planning this for centuries."

A pocket dimension. Lars felt a shock of giddy fear. These were aliens with the technology for giant town-destroying hands and for Shattering Robonoids-- aliens who hollowed out planets for use as colonies. Of course they had dimension-bending tech. Of course. That wasn't terrifying at all.

His hands were shaking again. "Everyone keep it cool," he muttered, and Rhodonite Pearl nodded nervously. White Pearl stayed silent and Stepford-smiling at his side, halfway between him and Stevonnie. 

The purple gem looked up and frowned. "You're the Imperial Officer who wants the announcement?" 

Lars flipped his hair and wondered if Rutile could actually feel it. That'd be weird. "That's right," he said. "You're the one in charge of all this, aren't you? The Ruby at the base said you could make that happen."

"I can, for the deserving," the purple gem said reprovingly. Her eyes traveled past Lars, to the two Pearls, and she relaxed by a fraction. "All these gems are with you? What about you, your Clarity? Are you looking for an announcement as well?"

"She'd prefer not to," Lars cut in. He scrambled for something else to say and tried, "Did you design this whole dimension by yourself? That's a big job."

The purple gem-- Iolite?-- flushed a deeper purple. "Thank you, my Morganite. It's an Iolite's purpose to make such things, of course, but it's always nice to be appreciated for my work. I believe the fountains on the third layer, by the stage, are particularly stunning, if you don't mind my saying. My Morganite, what's your designation?"

"Um, Morganite Facet 88 Cut..." How did gem names go again? "3LB." The Iolite nodded and typed it in, and Lars relaxed.

The Aquamarine from Fluorite had told him that the party organizers would be on high alert, since someone (they!) had stolen White Diamond's Pearl. They would probably be asked for ID.

Lars had told  _her_ that the whole point of making an entrance was to make everyone know you on  _your_ terms. The guards wouldn't ask them to identify themselves if they were already shouting their names all over the jubilee.

People could swindle entire office buildings out of their chairs by claiming to be inspectors, or new hires, or all sorts of things. One time a guy had said he was an inspector and had walked off with an entire town's treasury. One time a guy had said he was an airline pilot and had been _hired,_ just like that. This was nothing compared to what the old masters had accomplished. And unlike the old masters, Lars was a pink zombie with alien backup. 

Yeah. He could do this.

"We'll be sure to check those fountains out," Stevonnie promised the Iolite with a shaky smile, and she looked at them uncertainly for a moment before sketching a quick salute.

"Of course. If you'll go through to the jubilee, everyone, you'll be announced as soon as you enter. Most of the other guests have already arrived."

Fashionably late, huh. Lars could-- he could totally work with that. He tried a smug grin and stepped closer to the door. "Got it."

The door slid open, spilling blinding light out into the warp room. "You may enter," the Iolite said. "And may I just say, my Morganite-- your eye glow is absolutely  _stunning."_

His what? Lars thought, but he didn't get the chance before the Off-Colors pushed forward and forced him into the most extravagant space party of his life.


End file.
